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5th Risca is run 100% by volunteers and in order for us to continue and grow, we need adult helpers to come and join us.

Scouting is currently seeing the biggest demand to join us since World War 2 and as a popular group, we certainly have seen our waiting lists expand over the last year.  We would love to ask all young people to join us but due to our regulations, we have to adhere to strict adult to child ratios which means that we can't unless more adults come and help us.

What Would I Do As A Volunteer?

There is a role to suit everyone!  We have flexible roles where you can help out as and when and more regular roles in one of our sections or on our Executive Committee.  Here are some examples of some of the tasks you could get involved with:

•  Fundraising/applying for grants
• Updating our website and social media
• Buying supplies
• Running games
• Preparing the squash and biscuits during the meetings
• Cleaning the hut/maintaining the grounds
• Group admin support
• Attending camps or trips 
• Organising events

We are an inclusive organisation and welcome volunteers from all walks of life; you don't need to be 'outdoorsy' or physically fit to join us.  

All volunteers will be offered a uniform/group t shirt and will have access to free training and the opportunity to gain activity permits in areas such as archery and tomahawk throwing.

To express an interest, or to have an informal chat, please contact us: mail@5thrisca.org.uk/07909 537315   

This year we have two big anniversaries to celebrate – 50 years since our Scout hut in Risca was built, in its current location, and 75 years since 5^th Risca was set up.

We had planned to celebrate these milestones by having a party where we wanted to bring together past and present Scouters but COVID-19 put a stop to that!  Hopefully this can be rescheduled for the future.

To mark these important occasions, we have invested in our building and the Scouts were tasked with coming up with ideas for a design which will be painted onto the large shipping container outside the hut.  Our outside space is going to be further enhanced by some fruit trees that will be planted, which offers the perfect opportunity to bury a time capsule!

A 75th anniversary badge has also been given to all our leaders and young people which can be proudly worn on our neckers. 

Finally, I have also spent many hours creating a digital archive of all the photos and memorabilia so that these memories can be shared with everyone and kept for future years.  This work is ongoing and I hope to present this on our website soon; if you have any photos or memories you would like to be added then please get in touch (becky@5thrisca.org.uk) 

Struggling for something to do during the lockdown? Want to do something that keeps your Scouting values going whilst also having some fun and keeping fit?

The Scouts have partnerned with BBC's Big Day In and Big Night In this Thursday (23rd April) to have a virtual 'Hike to the Moon'. 23rd April is a really important day for us every year in The Scouts as this is St George's Day. St George is the Patron Saint of Scouts!!! So every year we renew our promises and have a big celberation of Scouting, usually on the nearest Sunday. This year, we are doing something different as a national organisation and are supporting Comic Relief and Children In Need for the Big Day In and Big Night In.

Together with Beavers, Cubs, Scouts and Explorers from across the UK, the plan is simple: Hike 1 mile inside your house or using your allocated exercise for the day, and when put together we will have hiked enough miles as Scouts in the UK to have hiked all the way to the moon!!

To put it into perspective, this is roughly 20 minutes of walking on the spot or continually walking around the house. 

Here is a message about this from our own Chief Scout, Bear Grylls: https://youtu.be/7gkcPGghInQ

Our Scout Leader, Skip, would love to put a video together of 5th Risca participating in the Hike To The Moon, and so please do make sure that you are wearing your 5th Risca necker and take a photo or video  and send it through to rhys@5thrisca.org.uk by 5pm Thursday and we will get it complied and published on our Social Media! 

Here is more information about the Hike To The Moon, together with some cool Lunar themed activities as an alternative. 

Whilst you are filming, we have got another video that we would love you to take part in:

• Necker challenge - This simply involves having someone off-camera throwing a necker towards our Beaver, Cub or Scout, and then they throw it off camera in the opposite direction. Here is an example: https://twitter.com/MynyddIsaScouts/status/1249955676413210624. (You might want to make this a little more interesting by adding a 'Necker flip' into it, where you kick the necker off your foot and catch it straight onto your head. Here is an example. Just don't forget to still have the necker being thrown in and back out!)

If you could get the Necker challenge video to us by 5pm Friday we can then put that video together seperately. 

With both of these videos, here are a couple of handy tips:

• Film in landscape - phone on its side
• Don’t zoom on your phone/tablet – move the camera closer instead!
• Make sure it’s well lit
• Keep the camera steady

Lets show the world what 5th Risca have been doing in lockdown!

All

Thank you to those of you who have responded to our snap poll on Facebook which we also emailed to you all earlier in the week. The results are in and attached to this email. As you will see, the majority of parents were happy to continue paying £10 a month subscriptions during this temporary postponement of face-to-face activities. 

However, the Executive Committee are keen not to leave anyone behind during this, and want to ensure that we are looking after each other as a 5th Risca Scout Family. 45% of the responses were for some form of reduction in subscriptions, which highlights that we need to act to ensure that we are supporting a sizeable proportion of our members during this time and doing what we can to continue their membership of the organisation. We have therefore taken the decision to implement a temporary drop in subscriptions to £8 per month. The OSM direct debit schedules have been updated and so no action is required of you. The subscriptions will revert to £10 a month once we are back to face-to-face Scouting.

There are still some people who are going to struggle with this, and so can we please reiterate... if you are going to have difficulty maintaining the subscription payment for your child(ren) please do get in touch with either of us, or with Becky our Group Chair or indeed your elected Executive Committee members. We can look to support families on a case-by-case basis.

With that in mind, a large proportion of you were happy to continue to pay the full subscriptions to the group during this time, and so could we suggest that if you are indeed keen to pay the full £10, that you make a payment of £2 to our PayPal account (mail@5thrisca.org.uk). This will in turn allow us to support families who come to us for further support with their subscription payments. 

Thank you for your ongoing support of Scouting during this time. These are unprecedented times, and we need to look out for one another. Please do utilise our Facebook group to keep in touch with one another (5th Risca Scouts - Parents).

Many thanks

Gareth Tanswell and Terri Wiltshire